- Judge Deborah Boardman issued a preliminary injunction, blocking Trump’s August sixth order for certified children in Maryland.
- The Supreme Court had already ruled on June thirtieth that covered children are citizens at birth under the Fourteenth Amendment.
- The Justice Department expected guidance by September fifth, twenty twenty-six, but the injunction stops enforcement first.
U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman blocked President Donald Trump’s August 6, 2026 executive order on Wednesday, September 2, 2026, protecting a certified class of children represented by CASA and the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project. The Maryland judge issued a preliminary injunction while the groups’ lawsuit continues.
The order stops the administration from enforcing its revised effort to narrow citizenship for children born in the United States. It came before federal agencies issued public guidance for carrying out the directive.
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Boardman rejected the Justice Department’s request to delay the case. The department had argued that the lawsuit was premature because agencies had not yet explained how they would implement the order.
The judge instead relied on the Supreme Court’s recent ruling. She said the high court had already determined the status of the children covered by the case.
“The Supreme Court has spoken: Children in the certified class are ‘citizens at birth.’”
Boardman also described the policy as “almost certainly unconstitutional as applied to the certified class.” The Supreme Court ruled on June 30, 2026, that Trump’s earlier effort violated the citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment. That provision covers children born in the United States who are “subject to the jurisdiction thereof.”
The revised order reaches beyond birth tourism
Trump signed the new directive on August 6, 2026, after the Supreme Court rejected his initial 2025 effort. The order focuses on “birth tourism,” referring to people who travel to the United States to give birth so their children receive automatic citizenship.
Its provisions also address several other categories. The order seeks to deny citizenship to children whose parent works for a foreign government in the United States, is classified as an “alien enemy,” or allegedly used fraud or a commercial transaction to obtain citizenship for a child.
The directive would also affect children connected to commercial arrangements involving citizenship. Its language reaches conduct that the administration characterizes as an attempt to secure citizenship through such an arrangement.
The legal challenge came from CASA and the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project. Their case asks the court to prevent the government from applying the order to the certified class while the dispute proceeds.
Boardman rejected the administration’s timing argument
Justice Department attorneys told the court that agencies needed time to prepare implementation guidance. They pointed to September 5, 2026, as the expected date for that public guidance.
The judge did not accept that schedule as a reason to postpone intervention. At a Friday hearing, Boardman called the directive “unprecedented.” She then entered the injunction.
Boardman addressed the administration’s position that no immediate dispute existed before agencies published instructions. Her ruling said the executive order itself commands agencies to deny citizenship documents to broad groups of children.
“No matter what the guidance says, the 2026 Executive Order commands agencies to deny citizenship documents to several broad categories of children.”
That reasoning allowed the case to proceed before the expected guidance date. The injunction protects the children identified in the certified class during the litigation.
The injunction covers a certified class in Maryland
The case, Casa Inc. v. Trump, 25-cv-201, is pending in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland in Greenbelt. The injunction bars enforcement against the protected children by the Department of State, the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration.
One reporting summary described the protected group as children born after February 19, 2025, to one or more parents who were not lawfully in the country at the time. The order also protects babies represented by the two immigrant-rights organizations named in the lawsuit.
Boardman had previously blocked Trump’s initial 2025 order before the Supreme Court considered that effort. The high court’s June ruling supplied the precedent she cited in the new injunction.
The earlier decision held that the citizenship clause applies to qualifying children born in the United States. Boardman’s ruling treated that holding as controlling for the certified class in the Maryland case.
The judge, an appointee of President Joe Biden, wrote that the court had to stop enforcement again. The injunction remains tied to the ongoing litigation rather than ending the case.
“This Court must, once again, preliminarily enjoin enforcement of the President’s most recent attempt to strip the right to citizenship from them.”
The Justice Department’s expected September 5 guidance will now be issued while the injunction is in effect. The case will continue in the Maryland federal court.
This article provides general information and is not legal advice. Consult a qualified immigration attorney about your specific case.
